Favorite Teams

Toronto Raptors' Amir Johnson, right, who made the game winning shot, is congratulated by teammates Greivis Vasquez, left, and Dwight Buycks after defeating the Boston Celtics in NBA action in Toronto on Friday March 28, 2014. The Raptors clinched a playoff spot with the win.
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gun)

When the Boston Celtics pulled ahead by four with three minutes left, they looked close to a nice road win in Toronto. Jerryd Bayless had ingested a pile of Pixie dust, Kelly Olynyk was making big plays, and the Celtics were on a 26-10 run that looked like it would postpone the Raptors clinching a playoff berth. Boston even forced a shot clock violation to get the ball back with 2:37 left, with a chance to extend a 101-97 lead.

But games this season have often resembled mad libs, and the Celtics advantage obviously was not safe. Here’s an example of what my recap could look like almost every night:

The Celtics fell behind by ____ points while surrendering a never-ending stream of layups that helped the opposing team, ____, score an unbelievable ____ points in the paint and shoot a scorching ___ percent from the field. Opposing center ____ looked particularly great against the undersized Boston lineup, but during the ___ quarter, ___ got hot to lead a Boston comeback. Briefly, it looked like Brad Stevens’ team might win. But the basket tightened down the stretch. With _____ left the Celtics allowed a critical bucket by ____ and missed out on their chance for an upset.

It happened again. The Celtics went four straight possessions without a bucket. The sequence went like this:

1. Bayless tested the hot hand theory, launching a contested, fadeaway two from 22 feet out with 11 seconds left on the shot clock. It missed (as such a poor shot should) and Jared Sullinger could not grab an offensive rebound. I've included a screen grab below, which is how I'll forever remember Bayless. Note Sullinger and Chris Johnson, both very much in great position.

2. Bayless dribbled near midcourt for about 10 seconds while Rajon Rondo (an All-Star point guard and one of the NBA’s best players) directed traffic off the ball. Finally, after Rondo waved his teammates into position, Kelly Olynyk emerged from the right block to set a ball screen for Bayless. Granted, the guard was hot. On fire, even. He had scored 14 points in the fourth quarter, and he was the biggest reason the Celtics even had an opportunity to win.

But if the play had worked correctly, Rondo would have been fading into the corner while the basketball (and his team’s fate) rested in the hands of a normally-inefficient combo guard. Related: Don’t sell your home to a person just because he arrived at the open house with a backpack full of fools gold. I would have preferred the four-time All-Star to have the basketball in his hands.

Alas, a referee called Olynyk for a moving screen. Turnover.

3. This was Boston’s best possession of the stretch, but also ended without a bucket. Rondo grabbed a defensive rebound, patiently waited for a pick-and-roll with Jared Sullinger, crossed over into the paint, and left a nice pass for Sullinger near the hoop. The power forward had a solid look from just a few feet away, but missed a lefty hook. Amir Johnson may or may not have deflected the attempt from behind.

4. A series of screens failed to create a good look, so Jeff Green caught a pass several feet outside the 3-point arc (not a particularly promising start), isolated against DeMar DeRozan (maybe this will work?), and attempted a stepback fadeaway from the right wing (less than ideal). It barely hit the front rim, but at least Green raced back in transition to prevent DeRozan from a fast-break layup (all GIFs courtesy of Red's Army blogger Jay Ouellette):

After the Raptors inbounded, DeRozan hit a fadeaway from about 10 feet away to give Toronto a 103-101 lead. The Celtics wisely called timeout to advance the ball to halfcourt and give themselves a chance for a two-for one. Rondo tied the score with a pretty drive, which he made with 28 seconds left.

Amazing understanding of clock and situation by Rondo. Ties game, ensures time for Celtics to get last shot.

Kyle Lowry missed a runner on the ensuing possession, but this happened, which wasn’t good for Boston:

The Raptors committed a nice foul with 3.0 seconds left (they had one to give), leaving Boston with one chance and not much time on the clock. A lot of people used to complain when Paul Pierce received an isolation in similar situations, but man, the Celtics could have used Pierce to catch the ball at the top of the key. Getting a clean look can be so tough with only three seconds left. With only that much time…

A) Rondo’s best skill (passing) is marginalized because he really doesn’t have much time for that. He threw the ball in, probably at least partially because he’s not really a threat to shoot. That means Boston's best player was completely taken out of the play, by design.

B) Green probably would have had the best chance to get off a decent shot, but he’s not very good off the dribble and Toronto obviously felt obliged to follow him closely around screens.

C) When Green was defended well on staggered flare screens, Rondo had to choose between Sullinger and Olynyk (who both struggle at times to create decent looks) or Jerryd Bayless (who was in the game because of his early-quarter hot streak, not because he’s any better than Avery Bradley). Rondo found Sullinger, a big man, near mid-court. He needed two dribbles just to reach the 3-point arc and launched a low-percentage, one-legged runner from behind the line. It almost killed the backboard, giving the Raptors the game.

Stevens was reminded that the Celtics charged back and lost a close contest (again), and he was asked how many games like that he can take.

“We have to stop getting down 14 every game, that’s the bottom line,” he told reporters in Toronto. “And then we’ve got to finish. That’s as much on me as anybody else. But we can’t constantly be down double figures going into the fourth quarter. To our guys’ credit, they fight, they play to the horn. But it’s not good enough if you’re always running uphill.”

Which reminds me:

Brandon Bass believes the Celtics starters have a chemistry issue: "That has to be what it is. It’s no particular person."

Halftime arrived and Boston's defense closed its eyes once again. Why do the Celtics keep giving up so many easy layups? It might have something to do with the two biggest starters.

By themselves, Kris Humphries and Brandon Bass have been useful as defenders. They're both versatile, can move their feet, get a few blocks here and there, and tend to offer consistent production. But in tandem, they're very undersized and they've been very bad.

Over 490 minutes with both on the court entering Friday, the Celtics have surrendered 110.0 points per possession -- in other words, they have fielded the equivalent of the league's worst defense. Normally the Celtics are average on that end of the court, so it's a huge difference. And these are the starters.

Anyway, the bad defense to start the third quarter wasn't all on Humphries and Bass. It wasn't even all on the bad defense. Turnovers -- including three really bad passes by Avery Bradley -- contributed significantly to the mess.

Rationally, Stevens surely knows how losses can benefit his team. With the bottom of the standings so crowded, each late-game failure could result in more ping-pong balls, which could mean the difference between drafting Noah Vonleh or Jabari Parker, which could turn into a very big deal.

But after the Celtics’ latest tough defeat, which gave Stevens as many losses this season as he had during a six-year tenure at Butler, he probably felt a little bit like the below UConn guard: slapped in the face.